Jan 17, 2009 / Friday's Digest #7 [UI, Design]
0 comments- Distinguishing decorative from meaningful elements in UI design. Ryan from 37signals shows how small decorative elements may influence usability.
- 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs. I am not a big fan of articles like "99 advices to web design", however this article is really useful. I especially like number 3 "Using contrast to manage focus", number 8 "Custom input focus" and 9 "Hover controls". We are going to use hover controls in v.3.0 design.
- Konigi.com is a great resource for UI developers. Many very useful links and examples.
- 2008 - The Year In Pictures. Nice photos. Nice atmosphere. Taste the last year as a good wine...
Labels: design, digest, ui, usability
posted by Michael Dubakov @ 8:16 AM
Jan 9, 2009 / Observation: Add/Edit Forms and View Pages in Web Applications
4 comments99% of web applications have add forms. Most of them have edit forms as well. It is really hard to imagine how you can add/store something without a form. OK, there are some ways like: import something from CSV file or another format, create something from incoming email/SMS/etc., capture image and create something from this image
Still if you need to add something quickly, in most cases you will use a web form. Obviously, if you need to edit something you will use web form as well. Is it the best solution? Can we get rid of edit forms? I bet we can.
Most applications has View page. It represents information in a more readable and usable format than a form. And to change one property you:
- Click Edit link and wait for new page to load.
- Change the property.
- Find and click Save button.
- Wait for previous View page to load.
That's quite time consuming process. I think the better way will be:
- Double click property you want to change.
- Type new value.
- Push Enter to save the new value using AJAX.
This way has several advantages. First, you don't need to create edit forms (ok, but you need to implement inline edit). Second, you provide much better user experience. Third, you get rid of Edit links everywhere, which is good (less complexity and less links is always good). That is something we are going to try in TargetProcess v.3.0.
posted by Michael Dubakov @ 11:00 AM
